Teijin Fibers Limited, a Teijin Group company, has announced that it is supplying Nanofront high-strength polyester nanofibre for the palms of Srixon’s new Pro Tour golf gloves.

The gloves (Srixon GGG-S005) are made and marketed by SRI Sports Limited, a major sport equipment manufacturer in Japan, and available in golf shops nationwide. This season, the gloves will be used by a number of top golfers who have endorsement deals with SRI Sports, including Sakura Yokomine.

The gloves are said to offer outstanding grip thanks to Nanofront’s excellent frictional properties and soft texture. According to Teijin, Nanofront also boasts excellent absorption and diffusion of moisture for added comfort, making it an ideal material for golf gloves.

Nanofront is a high-strength polyester fibre with a thickness of just 700 nanometres, or 7500 times smaller than the cross section of human hair. Nano-sized bumps on the surface of Nanofront raise frictional force and produce a surface area dozens of times greater than that of regular fibre, resulting in highly superior slip resistance.

Nanofront is said to have a wide variety of clothing and industrial applications, ranging from innerwear, sportswear, golf gloves and skin care products to abrasive cloths and filters. Teijin recently announced a finer version of Nanofront with a fibre diameter of 400 nanometres, an unprecedented achievement for a commercial polyester fibre, which is expected to be used for applications including high-performance air filters.

Earlier this year, Teijin announced it was supplying Nanofront for use in the palms of bicycle and motorcycle gloves made by Goldwin Inc., a major sport apparel maker in Japan. This was said to be the first time Nanofront was to be used in bicycle and motorcycle gloves.

Additionally, in January this year the company said it was supplying its Nanofront nanofibre for use in running socks made by New Balance. Frictional force, one of the noteworthy properties of Nanofront, creates outstanding slip resistance to help prevent the sock from sliding inside a shoe, thereby reducing blisters and shoe sores. The socks are being marketed by New Balance Japan and sold in its own shops in Tokyo.

Teijin is a technology-driven global group offering advanced solutions in the areas of sustainable transportation, information and electronics, safety and protection, environment and energy and healthcare. Its main fields of operation are high-performance fibres such as aramid, carbon fibres and composites, healthcare, films, resin and plastic processing, polyester fibres, products converting and IT.

The group has some 150 companies and over 17,000 employees spread out over 20 countries worldwide. It posted consolidated sales of JPY 815.7 billion (USD 9.9 billion) and total assets of JPY 761.5 billion (USD9.3 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011.